For a long time I've been the kind of web developer that enjoys
writing clean, valid code. I have some web friends that think I'm a
little too hard core, but it makes me happy. When I complete a site (or
when I run into a problem while developing the XHTML/CSS), I
use the Web Developer's Toolbar in Firefox to quickly run the page
through HTML and CSS validation. No, I don't put the little button on
my sites -- who really cares? But I do make sure it validates.

This
week, I had a really odd phenomenon happen. I found myself using
proprietary CSS, causing my page not to validate, and then told
someone, "Who cares if it validates!" Shocking coming from my mouth... or fingers.

That said, what's validation really for? Is it the end, or the means
to an end? Is the goal to create pages that work in the validator? Or
pages that work in all major browsers and sell whatever your client is
selling?

I've come to believe that if I have to use proprietary code to force a certain browser which shall remain nameless
to render code the way it would be rendered if that browser were
standards-compliant, and it doesn't harm any other browser's rendering
of the page, then I've done my job. If rest of the CSS validates and is
written correctly, then I've used my tools wisely and created a site my
client can make money from and I can be proud of.

I have been into Opera for some time now, and it's an excellent
browser, particularly the "zoom" feature. Unfortunately I am sometimes
prevented from operating certain sites, and I have found that Firefox
reliably handles them, so I know it's not just IE-specific code at
fault.

So, I have been toying around with FF1.0 a little, and I didn't care
for a few of the ways it behaves, so I was reluctant to switch over.
Well no more.

Today I went for it, and started gleaning thru the hundreds of new
FF extensions to be had, and suffice to say, my mind HAS BEEN BLOWN.
Right now an explosion is happening in the FF extension field, and the
sky is the limit.

I'm literally chortling with glee (and I don't do that too often) over
all the cool functionality now at my beck and call. Irritating Flash
ads? Zap 'em. Don't like a particular image or text block? Kaboom. Ads
in general giving you hives? Blacklist them, complete with wildcards. Woohoo! Blog tools galore, RSS stuff, developer tools, you name it.

And that's not all. There's a popup counter, showing just
how many popups FF blocked for you on a page, along with the "all time
high" # of popups ever blocked at one time. "Madge, I THINK I'm going
to be sick!" You can select a plain unlinked url on a page, right click
and off you go. Does it irritate you to have to register at every
Podunk paper just to see some linked story, only to never visit again?
Arrrr, ye be covered, Matey. >;-D One extension employs algorythms
to make the mouse wheel scrolling butter smooth. Ahhhh.

This only scratches the surface of what's available, and the fun is
just getting started. Consider "Fangs", which gives a text
representation of what a screen reader would speak. Awesome. One
extension even replicates my beloved "restore closed tab" feature from Opera. Happy happy happy! Joy Joy Joy!

Yes, I now feel a true master of my domain (no pun intended).
It's good to be King.